Two Democrats, Zoe Lofgren (D-CA) and Gabe Amo (D-RI), have accused Energy Secretary Chris Wright of lying to Congress about green grants.
The representatives accused Wright of lying as he testified that the climate-related funding cancellations were not politically motivated, they argued in a letter to Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche.
“In a federal lawsuit related to the same award terminations, DOE’s Principal Deputy General Counsel formally stipulated that ‘the inclusion of grants in the October notice tranche was based solely on the political identity of the grant recipient’s state, i.e., whether the recipient’s location and/or place of performance was in a Blue State or a non-Blue State,'” they wrote.
“Secretary Wright lied to the Committee with his statements, which sought to prevent us from learning the truth: that the October award terminations were an act of political retaliation,” the letter says, adding, “In doing so, he violated 18 USC §1001, which bars individuals from making ‘any materially false, fictitious, or fraudulent statement or representation’ to Congress. We have no choice but to refer Secretary Wright to the Department of Justice for potential prosecution in this matter.”
The letter asserts that prior to Wright’s testimony, the DOE “signed stipulations that politics was the sole basis for the October 2025 award termination decisions, and that how a state had voted in the 2024 presidential election was the defining factor in the political identity that would determine whether it would experience award terminations or not.”
“Referring a Cabinet Secretary for potential prosecution is not a step we take lightly,” the Democrats further added. “It is a weighty thing to assert that a Cabinet Secretary lied to Congress. We do not treat that assertion as a trivial matter, and we do not use those words carelessly. But the facts of the situation are clear and undeniable.”
At the time the green funds were pulled, OMB Director Russ Vought wrote on social media, Nearly $8 billion in Green New Scam funding to fuel the Left’s climate agenda is being cancelled. More info to come from @ENERGY.”
He added that the funding affected “the following states: CA, CO, CT, DE, HI, IL, MD, MA, MN, NH, NJ, NM, NY, OR, VT, WA.”
